


At a Glance

by EmmaLuLuChu



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, VLD Fanfiction Remix 2017, home sickness, obvsly not enough for them to be tagged so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 10:02:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11918529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmmaLuLuChu/pseuds/EmmaLuLuChu
Summary: three times Hunk attempted to help Shiro and the one time he sees how well it works





	At a Glance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BossToaster (ChaoticReactions)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticReactions/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Hold Up Half the Sky](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10410915) by [BossToaster (ChaoticReactions)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticReactions/pseuds/BossToaster). 



> hey it's your girl lulu back at it again with the Shunk /rolls away on heelies and finger guns
> 
> I had the honor of being able to remix one of Bosstoasters works, and given that she has the personal goal of getting to 1 million words worth of VLD content by season 4 (? i think don't quote me on that) I had a TON of stuff to pick from. Originally I was going to go with All About that Space, but when I took a bit longer to look I came across this chapter from one of her collections of prompt fills from tumblr for a follower milestone event and it felt right to expand on that and see what could've happened before to get to that point where Hunk could help Shiro keep calm.
> 
> I really hope you enjoy this Boss, along with everybody else who reads!

“Hey, Hunk? I uh, appreciate you wanting to make this easier for me, but um. . . “

Hunk had just barely been able to hear Shiro over the loud noise surrounding them, because even the quieter parts were still the noise level of a TV with its volume all the way up, trying to disguise his sigh of relief as he turned the music off to properly hear what Shiro had to say.

“Yeah? Is it working for you?”

It was clear both of their ears were still ringing, the both of them staring at each other before they realized words had been said. Shiro still showed some hesitance after being asked the question before finally responding, “Like I was saying, I appreciate the thought but, the music is more stressing than relaxing.”

The Yellow Paladin couldn’t hide his agreement to the point, groaning and rubbing at his eyes, “Yeah, I asked Coran if there was any music that would be good to distract or relax someone, and he gave me this. He went on about how it was his favorite song and a memoir of his previous years so I _had_ to use it. I totally understand what Allura meant by Coran having a ‘rebellion’ phase now.”

Even though it was likely the rebellious opera had probably broken something in Hunk’s ears, it was worth the brief pain to hear Shiro laugh at what he said. He began to clean up his maintenance tools, deciding not to question how he had even managed to finish his check on Shiro’s Galra prosthetic. “Now when Coran asks how I liked the music I’m gonna have to like, make a quick excuse and run the other way. He was so happy talking about it, I can’t tell him that our ears literally almost burst from it.”

Shiro nodded in agreement, lifting his arm and giving it the usual cursory look before turning to Hunk, “I’m impressed you made it the whole way through. If it was hurting you that bad though I would’ve asked to turn it off, but you were so focused I really thought you had tuned it out. Somehow.”

Hunk shrugged, closing up his tool case and turning back to Shiro, “I kind of had, I didn’t want to accidentally mess up or anything. So, music is off the list, I’ll see if there’s any other methods that can help.” He went to go do just that, but stopped as a hand touched at his shoulder, turning around once more to Shiro. The Black Paladin was giving him a worried look and a strained smile, as if he was trying to give him news that he knew he didn’t want to hear.

“Hunk, you don’t have to worry about helping, okay? You’ve already done enough by making sure this is in working condition,” He lifted his robotic arm up for example, the metal glinting from the quick polish Hunk had given it, “I feel bad having you do anything further.”

Hunk shook his head, stepping closer to Shiro and folding his arms in a firm stance, “No, it isn’t. Your comfort is important, if you’re tense the whole time I’m working on your arm that could lead to unexpected results, and even more stress for you.” He reached out to take a hold of Shiro’s shoulders, allowing worry to seep into his voice, “I’m not losing sleep or anything, so let me help in this way, okay? I don’t want you to have anything else to worry about.”

Shiro stared, just a bit stunned by what Hunk said to him, and nodded. He stepped back, bringing a hand up to rub the back of his neck, “Okay Hunk, just yes if-if your health starts to be effected by it please take care of yourself. I’ll see you later.” He left then, Hunk chuckling as the poor leader almost ran into the doorframe from lack of paying attention, quickly ducking out as the engineer went back to thinking over ways to help distract Shiro.

A few weeks back after an unfortunate incident with Shiro and a vat of space slime ("I just wanted to play with it, it was so tempting Hunk! I wasn't thinking when I reached out to touch it! _Please help me it keeps leaking slime everywhere-_ "), they had started to do these 'check-ups' and routine cleanings of the prosthetic attached to his body. It gave Hunk a chance to better learn the foreign tech, but it quickly became clear that Shiro was uncomfortable during them, eyes laser-focused on the metal and almost willing it to stay completely still. Hunk knew that Shiro was afraid of something happening, whether it was as ridiculous as Hunk accidentally flipping a sleeper agent protocol switch inside or as realistic as Hunk causing Shiro to accidentally activate his arm, Shiro feared hurting Hunk. He feared hurting anybody on the team because of some unknown thing about the arm. Hunk still remembered having to talk Shiro down from the idea of strapping him down during the check-ups, because even if it quelled his fear of hurting others it would only make his PTSD worse and give him flashbacks of his time as a prisoner and Hunk _refused_ to let that happen.

So Hunk would keep looking for a way to help Shiro relax and not worry about his own self turning on the people around him. Even if it did give him sleepless nights or caused him to miss a meal.

Shiro had already been through a lot, and Hunk wanted to help him find a way to rest easy.

-

“Okay, so, there’s some tools sitting next to us. Three of them are a grey color, and only one is a black color. Odd one out.”

“That’s a good start, but don’t limit yourself to what’s present. You can describe people or things not in here.”

Hunk bit back the snicker as Shiro gave the most tired, suffering sigh ever. He was having the other try a new thing to help loosen himself up for the check-ups. Once he had started the process, Hunk had told Shiro to find things to describe, not to talk about, but to evaluate and take in every detail and tell him about it. Hunk was hoping that having Shiro focus on a task that was simple but could take a long while to do (whether that was how descriptive he got or how many things there were to describe) would be enough to make him forget where he was so he wasn’t as tense. There had mainly been groaning so far and no relaxing of Shiro’s body posture, but Hunk was positive about this, it had to work to _some_ degree.

“Alright. . . somebody or something to describe. . . “ a certain look flashed across Shiro’s face, making Hunk want to question the smallest upturn of his lips, but the other began to talk before he could ask anything about it, “Got somebody. Obviously it’s somebody on the ship, and if you'll keep it secret. . . they’re the cutest person I know, and would be interested in pursuing something with them.”

Hunk’s eyebrows flew up at that. He never pegged Shiro to be the type of person to be so open about his love interests; then again this was the most they socialized with one another outside of being teammates. He quickly mimed ‘locking’ his lips before resuming his work, wordlessly pushing Shiro to continue, who did so without missing a beat,

“Everybody on the team is strong and does their best, but this person doesn’t get as much recognition as they should. They’re one of our most brilliant tech people, the strongest in battle, and one of the most caring people I know. their laugh is so perfect, and their eyes light up so much when they do something they love to do. I wish I had the courage to admit my feelings to them, but they seem kind of oblivious to any moves I make, granted I'm holding myself back. I don't know entirely how they would take my interest in them, but I hope it would be good.”

That was probably the vaguest description Hunk had ever heard. Shiro could be talking about _anyone_ (other than Hunk, because why would he be so open about who he liked in front of the one he liked? It didn't help the pang of sad realization in his heart though.), and Hunk had paused where he was in an effort to try and guess the love interest. He must’ve pondered for a solid minute or two as he tried to reason if it was Lance or Keith or Pidge or Allura (maybe even Coran?), which was enough time for Shiro to call out to him,

“Hey, you alright there? I didn’t fry your brains or anything?”

Hunk shook himself from the continuous loop of thought he had been trapped in, straightening up to look at Shiro and sheepishly smiling, “Sort of, I was just trying to piece together who it was, that was probably rude of me though.”

“Well, who do you think it is?”

There was a teasing lilt to Shiro’s question, a hidden meaning to it that Hunk couldn’t immediately decipher like the question of which person was Shiro’s love interest. The check-up was forgotten now, Hunk placing down his tools and beginning to tick off people on his fingers and giving his own thought out reasons.

“Well, like you said everybody on the team is strong and performs the best they can. I know you’ve been working on fixing it, but Lance sometimes doesn’t receive the recognition he deserves, not just you but from everybody. Then there’s Pidge, who’s like basically the smartest person aboard the ship. Allura and Keith are incredibly strong and can take on a hoard of Galra sentries, and Coran cares for every single one of us. So it has to be one of them, right?” It would be stupid to try and guess it was himself, as much as he hoped Shiro did hold some feelings for him.

Shiro only smiled, baffling Hunk as he reached out and pushed his hand down, “Good thought process, but you missed one more possibility. They each have hit one or two of those things, but only one person is all of those traits.”

There was nobody else on the ship though. Nobody except. . . except for. . .

Hunk’s eyes widened, and his face flushed so hard and fast that he _felt_  the heat radiating off his cheeks, and it only intensified as Shiro looked at him with a nervous but hopeful look.

The distraction tactic had sort of worked, but it very much led to the check-up being completely forgotten. He’d come up with a different tactic idea.

After he kissed Shiro though.

-

Shiro was still tense during check-ups. By now they had been able to piece together that having Shiro focus on other things helped to a degree, but not enough to make his shoulders relax and put his mind at ease from assuming everything would go horribly wrong in the next second. From having Shiro watch something to having a full blown conversation with him, it was all only halfway working and Hunk was running out of ideas.

One morning though, instead of waking up and immediately racking through his mental list for the next idea to try, Hunk woke up missing home.

His dream had been nice, he was back on Samoa and was walking to the nearby market with his Tama to pick up ingredients for Eso Fafao, Tama was going to finally tell Hunk the secret ingredient he used in it, but he’d woken up to the blank wall of his room, deep in space, and lightyears away from the sun and sea breeze he missed so much.

It was enough to affect him. Normally he kept from letting his sadness show through to everyone, but today it was especially hard to force on a smile around everyone else, and it would be even worse to do that around Shiro, especially during the bi-weekly check-up that was today.

He really tried to put on his usual cheery disposition, but before he could even open the panel on Shiro’s arm the other began to talk,

“Hunk, are you okay? You looked really down during breakfast, and I can tell you’re trying to fake it. Do you want to talk about it?”

Hunk sighed, figuring it wasn’t worth it to try and hide it anymore. He set down the tool he had just picked up, using the hand to prop his chin up, flicking his eyes between Shiro’s own worry filled ones and the table they were set up on. “I’m sorry, I uh. . . had a dream about home. I was with my Tama, and we were going to the market to buy ingredients. It almost all felt real, I could taste the salt in the wind, and everything looked so detailed I had to actually be there. Then I woke up, and realized it was only a dream.”

It felt slightly better now that he had voiced it, but there was a lingering ache Hunk couldn’t pin point, like a lettuce head with its leaves wrapped too tightly around itself. Something was stuck inside and still needed to come out, to be undone and he couldn’t tell what it needed to be.

“Was that all? Anything else you wanted to talk about?”

Hunk shook his head at the question, picking the tool up he’d set down. They needed to do this check-up, they had a training that was scheduled for later and there was no time for Hunk to be mopey and think about home for so long.

“I’m good for now, we need to get started. Go ahead and talk about something, it’ll help to get me focused.”

Once again, Hunk couldn’t start before Shiro spoke again, taking him more by surprise with his request,

“Maybe you can talk this time, you can tell me about your home and your. . . Tama, right? I want to hear about it.”

Hunk stared up at Shiro, blinking at the openly curious look he was giving him. He managed to shut his mouth and find the words he wanted to say, voice perfectly portraying his surprise,

“But-I-I need to. . . the check-up-“

Shiro simply cut him off with a shrug, a tiny but teasing smile starting to stretch across his face, “Well, there’s a thing called multi-tasking. You’ve been able to easily ask me questions and converse with me while working on my arm, so you have no excuse.” His smile softened then, looking at him with quiet hope, “I really do want to hear about your home and family though. I don’t know a whole lot about you before all of this,” he gestured with his free hand across the room, signifying that he meant everything they’d done with Voltron, “and I really want to know more. I’ve also exhausted everything I can talk about, and I’m tired of hearing my own voice. So tell me about yourself.”

Shiro spoke with a finality that made it hard for Hunk to argue back, leaving him with only the option to slowly nod and finally start the check-up. He waited until he had the panel properly opened and began his first step of the long process to finally start talking,

“My home is Samoa, a cluster of islands in Oceania. There’s two large islands, with smaller ones dotted around. My house is near Lalomanu on the Savai’i island, there’s a smaller island called Nu’utele I could always see through my window. My Tama-my father-always told me stories of him sailing with his friends to the island to explore it. He said one day he’d take me to go explore it too, when I was old enough and there was a high tide-“

Surprisingly, talking helped with that ache he had felt. The more Hunk talked of his family, of the market where they got their food from, to even describing the flora and fauna of the island in detail, the more it helped to loosen that tight feeling in his chest. Before he knew it, he was closing up the panel in the Galra arm, sitting up to stretch his back.

“everything checks out, all clean and well maintained. Sorry if I talked your ear off, I was really feeling homesick I guess.” Since getting into space Hunk hadn’t thought too much about home, other than when they were still on Arus. When the realization came that this was long term it had been easier to not think about it, but it felt good being able to talk about it now. Hunk looked up to thank Shiro for listening, but blinked as he finally saw the other since he first started the check-up.

Shiro was _relaxed._ All tenseness in his shoulders were gone, his eyebrows weren’t pinched together, there was a languid smile on his lips, never had Hunk seen the Black Paladin so serene. He hadn’t even noticed yet that Hunk had finished, eyes lost in thought until he too blinked and looked to Hunk. He finally seemed to become aware of his surroundings, looking down to his tech arm and lifted it up, wiggling the fingers and staring at it in confusion.

“Did you finish?”

“Yeah, just a few seconds ago. We’re actually right on time; we still have half a varga before we need to go train.”

Shiro blinked again, making a soft ‘huh’ before looking up to Hunk, surprised at his own self. “I. . . think I zoned out? I was just trying to visualize what you were talking about, but I guess I focused on it more than I realized.”

Hunk smiled and shrugged, leaning forward to hold the hand of the arm he had just been working on, thumb rubbing the back of it, “Don’t worry about it. We helped each other out.”

This was too good to be true. Hunk had finally found a way to help Shiro.

You can bet Hunk was going to be talking a lot more now.

-

Hunk’s check-ups on Shiro’s arm were now far better. On top of finally being able to help Shiro relax during them, he’d slowly found ways to make the process go faster and more smoothly, and it just brought the two closer together. Hunk was still sort of in shock that Shiro actually felt so deeply for him, and his own feelings for the other had become deeper too. More than their time in his work room caused that, but every other time too. During training, when they were battling, and every moment in between, Hunk found himself loving Shiro more and more. He wasn’t entirely sure of the future their relationship had, but god damn did Hunk want to hold on tight just to one day see Shiro truly happy and free of worry, for longer than the small moments they had in the kitchen by themselves or during the routine check-ups, but all day, every day without stop.

When he looked up after finishing another one of his cleanings, wrapping up on telling a story about the first time he had attempted to bake a cake, Hunk had his breath taken away when he saw Shiro _sleeping._

Shiro was awkwardly leaned over; head pillowed on his bicep, his free arm curled loosely into his body, and he was bound to have a crick in his neck when he woke up, but his breathing was even and deep and his eyelids were just barely twitching.

It was likely a rare sight nowadays, and Hunk truly realized how much Shiro trusted him.

Hunk carefully leaned over, lips just brushing Shiro’s forehead, and lightly pressed a kiss to the skin free of worry lines. He made sure to keep the touch light, knowing Shiro would easily wake up at a firm enough touch, and he wanted the other to sleep as long as he could.

Hunk would fight a thousand Galra armies, single-handed and alone, if it meant he could see Shiro at peace and sleeping with no worries weighing him down.

At a glance, he knew that sentiment he gave was true, grey eyes softly opening and looking at him with nothing but pure love in their irises.

**Author's Note:**

> god i love shunk. i love it s o m u c h.
> 
> you can always see what i'm up to on my [tumblr](https://luluwritesthings.tumblr.com/), i'm working more on making promo posts when i upload new stuff! i've also been accepted into some zines so you can keep an eye out for any previews there!
> 
> peace y'all


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